Journalism innovations as a driver for journalistic diversity and inclusion: International examples and editorial institutionalization

Abstract

We examine whether internationally relevant journalism innovations of the last decade support journalistic diversity and inclusion aspects and look at the degree of their editorial institutionalization. To approach an answer, thirty-eight guided interviews were conducted between the end of 2021 and summer 2022 along thirty-eight innovative journalism case studies among five European countries. We show that diversity is seen as a key journalism innovation in all five countries. We find that innovative journalism initiatives show diversity-relevant references and influence the degree of diversity and inclusion accessible to the audience in a positive manner. Thus, efforts to strengthen innovation in the media industry are an important building block for ensuring future journalism that does not want to distance itself from social reality. However, based on structuration theory considerations, we conclude that large numbers of innovative journalism initiatives are not sufficient to institutionalize diversity and inclusion. Instead, these aspects need to be defined explicitly as editorial quality goals which are anchored in an editorial quality management system.